Avoyelles Courthouse courtrooms lighting, a/c project nears completion

As the Avoyelles Parish Courthouse prepares to turn 90 this month, minor renovations to the courtrooms are being finished.

The $100,000 project isn’t as extensive as parish officials had hoped it would be when a 3rd floor renovation project was envisioned a few years ago. Former Tax Assessor Emeric Dupuy donated $100,000 from the Assessor’s Office toward the project.

District Judge William “Billy” Bennett said some anticipated funding fell through, so the project stalled.

Rather than scrap the entire project and return the gift to the Assessor’s Office, current Assessor Heath Pastor agreed to allow the $100,000 donation to be used to replace the lighting and air conditioning on the 3rd floor.

“This situation actually dates back to December 1996, when then-Clerk of Court Sammy Couvillon provided the funds needed to create two courtrooms capable of conducting jury trials at the same time," Bennett said. “About two years ago, it was decided to remodel the two courtrooms to be of about equal size. Emeric Dupuy pledged $100,000 for that project. We thought we had additional funds available, but we ran into significant losses and the money was not there to go forward.”

Then it was decided the most important, and financially feasible, work would be to replace lighting with LED lights and to replace the heating and air-conditioning system, which at times prevents those in the courtroom from hearing important testimony.

Bennett said those improvements will probably be finished before the end of the year.

The more extensive remodeling proposals are still on a drawing board somewhere, but for now courthouse patrons are glad for the improvements the voluntary donation by the assessor made possible.

“We made the donation for the public good because those improvements were needed,” Pastor said. Pastor served as Dupuy’s chief deputy assessor prior to being elected to succeed Dupuy, who did not seek re-election.

The Police Jury, which has legal authority over the courthouse, entered into an intergovernmental agreement with the Assessor’s Office to fund $100,000 of improvements in the courtrooms.

Pastor said his office might be willing to make such donations on future projects “depending on the proposed project, the involvement of other agencies in the courthouse and on the funds available in this office.”

Pastor said the decision to donate $100,000 “was for a one-time improvement project” and is not something his office will routinely do.

Police Jury Secretary/ Treasurer Jamey Wiley said the work on the 3rd floor is being done solely with the assessor’s donation. The Police Jury has not budgeted anything for the project.

Bennett said the work will be finished within the $100,000 budget for the project.

Brent Scallan, of Scallan Contractors, consulted on the overall project but is not directly involved in the current work. That is being handled by Service Air & Electrical of Hessmer.

‘WELL OVERDUE’
“This is something that was well overdue,” Scallan said. “We were planning to remodel both courtrooms, but the funding fell through.”

If funding is obtained for the overall remodeling of the two courtrooms, Scallan would step back into the picture as general contractor.

“As money becomes available, we will renovate both courtrooms,” Scallan said. “It’s like Mama at the store with 50 cents who tells the kids, ‘You can have a 25 cent piece of candy, you can have a 5 cent candy and you can have a dime.’

“In this case, we were able to do Step 1, which the judges felt was the most important thing to do,” Scallan said. “The good thing is, we can do Step 1 now and when we do Step 2, we don’t have to tear up Step 1. Step 1 will already have been done.”